02/28/2021
The Common Application saw 10 percent more applications submitted by about 1 percent more students. But about 3 percent fewer students who would be the first in their families to go to college submitted applications this year. There was also a 2 percent drop in students who qualified for waived admissions fees — a proxy for family income.
“The inequities of access to education are in stark relief,” said Jenny Rickard, the chief executive of the Common App.
Selective and well-known schools like Haverford, the University of California, Los Angeles and Penn State saw double-digit surges. Harvard set a record — a 42 percent increase — and the entire Ivy League had to extend its notification deadline by a week to give counselors time to read applications.
But many of the state schools and small private colleges that educate a vast majority of college students in the United States suffered double-digit drops. At Portland State in Oregon, freshman applications were down 12 percent and transfers down 28 percent. And applications fell by 14 percent at the State University of New York, the largest public college system in the country.
Many institutions outside the top tier have struggled for years. The pandemic has made it worse: American colleges and universities have endured losses of more than $120 billion and a few have even shut down permanently. For those that remain, landing fewer students — and losing critical tuition dollars — could mean further distress.
While top-tier colleges are dealing with surges in applications, lesser known ones have seen sharp declines.